Thanks to the gold medal in women’s basketball, a tournament that ended the two-week competition at Paris 2024 on Sunday, the United States finished the Olympics atop the medal table, tied with China with 40 gold medals.
On the other hand, Team USA has more silver medals than China (44 to 27), and more medals in total, 126 to 91. Japan is third, with 45 medals (20-12-13).
The United States and China continued the struggle until the last moment. Today, Sunday, the sixteenth and final day of the Paris-2024 Championship began, with the Asian giant topping the medal table by one gold ahead of the Americans (39-38).
The US team was counting on adding two more titles on Sunday, in volleyball and women’s basketball, but Italy surprised by defeating the Tokyo 2020 volleyball champion.
China also added a final gold medal thanks to weightlifter Li Wenwen and it seemed all was decided in the Asians’ favour, but Jennifer Valenti won the gold medal in the women’s omnium track, so everything remained to be decided in the final women’s basketball final.
At Bercy Arena, despite French resistance, Team North America won 67-66 to add an eighth consecutive gold and give Team USA the lead in the medal table.
To determine the medal table order, the number of gold medals is taken into account first, and then, to break the tie, the number of silver and bronze medals.
© AFP